Audrey told me her first lie the other day. I know you’re thinking…”she’s 16 months old and can only say one cryptic word at a time, how can she lie to you!” Well, I wouldn’t have believed it, either, if I hadn’t been there myself.
I was folding clothes on our bed and Audrey was playing on the chaise lounge in our bedroom. She was telling me she wanted to get down by saying “up, up, up!” In case you were wondering, in Audrey speak “UP” means up, down, in, out, and any other verb that describes a position other than her current one. Anyway, I was ignoring her, hoping to ge the last of the towels folded and because I KNEW that as soon as I got her down, she would just want to get back up! So, pretty soon, she started saying “ewww” and pointing to her diaper. As any mom does to avoid unnecessary messiness, I immediately scooped her up to get the dirty diaper changed. When I did, she turned around with a coy smirk on her face that said something like “haha, Mom. I got the best of you!” Sure enough, when I looked in her diaper, it was as clean as a whistle. The little stinker knew that if I thought she had a dirty diaper, I would get her off the chair, which is what she wanted in the first place!
It makes you stop and think. The innocence of babyhood is so quickly replaced by inevitable sinful human nature. You look at your little baby and think there’s nothing on earth they could do wrong. I guess they probably look at us the same way. One day, if she hasn’t already, Audrey is going to realize that I’m not perfect, either.
A parent’s love for their child, in spite of their faults, is the closest thing to God’s love for us on this side of heaven. Both are loves that transcend human understanding. What a gift to get to experience them both on a daily basis!
